Trump Has Surprise Transition Team Meeting With Democrat Tulsi Gabbard

Over the past two weeks, President-elect Donald Trump has meet with hundreds of people, some of whom were being considered for positions in his administration and others who were just offering advice.

Perhaps one of the most shocking meetings Trump has had so far was on Monday with Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an ardent support of socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination, NBC News reported.

On the surface, Trump meeting with a hard-core Democrat like Gabbard, potentially to talk about her serving in his administration, would worry many of Trump’s supporters.

However, Gabbard has broken with her party on many issues, particularly refugees and intervening in the Syrian Civil War. Her foreign policy lines up closely with Trump’s, so the two of them would be natural allies on at least a few issues.

Gabbard stated that the meeting went well, and that they had “frank” conversations about Syria and fighting terrorism, CNN reported.

“President-elect Trump asked me to meet with him about our current policies regarding Syria, our fight against terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, as well as other foreign policy challenges we face,” she said in a statement released after the meeting.

Politico also reported that Gabbard stated that she advised Trump to ignore any advice from so-called “neoconservatives” who would push for more intervention in the Middle East.

Trump stated during his campaign that he would seek to build a government that would work with both Democrats and Republicans to get things done.

Having a Democrat on his team would be a powerful message of unity, but Trump needs to be careful. Much of his base does not approve of Democrat ideology, so putting a liberal Democrat in a powerful position in his administration would cause some of his supporters to worry.